Mario Mandzukic netted a brace before Leonardo Bonucci's 74th minute goal ensured Juventus beat Napoli 3-1 to remain at the top of Serie A log on Saturday, September 29, 2018.
The encounter in Turin saw Juventus miss top stars that include Sami Khedira, Mattia De Sciglio, Leonardo Spinazzola and suspended Douglas Costa.
Therefore, the Old Lady opted for Emre Can to step in alongside, Paulo Dybala for Federico Bernardeschi.
Napoli almost claimed the opening goal of the match after six minutes, but Zielinski's left-footed shot from distance could only hit the far post with Juve goalie Wojciech Szczesny well beaten.
On the other end, Cristiano Ronaldo's effort stung David Ospina's gloves from 20 metres out, but it was not good enough to hand Juventus the lead.
However, Napoli took the deserved lead with a well-worked team goal by Belgium star, Dries Mertens on the 10th minute.
Allan intercepted a Leonardo Bonucci pass, linked up Jose Callejon, who cushioned the volleyed assist beautifully for Mertens to complete the job.
Juventus did not panic as they kept playing their game, until Cristiano Ronaldo turned Elseid Hysaj inside out and put a cross on the head of Mandzukic to level up scores.
Moments later, the Portuguese star was hacked down on the outside the box and from that resultant free kick, David Ospina save from a tight angle, but nobody was insight to finish off the rebound, with Marek Hamsik getting a desperate block on Miralem Pjanic from adding Juve's second on the night.
Indeed, the home side controlled most exchanges but no other goal was scored until the end of the first stanza.
In the second half, Juventus continued from where they stopped and just four minutes after restart Mandzukic scored the second to put the Serie A champions in the driving seat.
The encounter at the later stages also saw Napoli's Mario Rui reviewed his second booking on the 60th minute, which resulted to a red and a one-man down, for the away side.
From then on, Juve showed they are at home with their possession game and were able to score the third goal on the 76th minute through Leonardo Bonucci.
At the end of the game, a total of eight yellow cards and one red was splashed out by centre referee Luca Banti as the defending champions put the game beyond Napoli.
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